Avocados are a Pregnancy Essential

Not only are they a completely delicious super-food, but new research has labelled avocados as essential eating during pregnancy and beyond. Avocados contain lots of minerals, antioxidants, dietary fibre and vitamins. Most importantly for pregnant women, they’re a fantastic natural source of folate, which can help prevent neural tube defects.

This recent study, which was conducted by various US and Canadian universities, specifically looked at the role of avocados during pre-conception, pregnancy and lactation. As we all know, what a women eats has a crucial role to play in fertility, fetal development during pregnancy, birth outcomes and breast milk composition. And until a baby is weaned, a mother’s food choices directly impact upon a child’s nutritional intake. This early period can have a lifelong impact on the child’s health and risk for certain diseases.

While it’s accepted by pretty much everyone that a healthy diet for a pregnant woman includes lots of fruit and vegetables for their nutrient rich benefits, what’s not in the official guidelines is the fact these nutrient levels vary widely and not all fruits and veges can be considered “nutrient rich”.

Which is why this study looked specifically at avocados. The humble avocado is pretty damn amazing. They are unique in that, by weight, they contain much higher amounts of folate and potassium – crucial nutrients that are often under-eaten by pregnant women. They also have higher amounts of fibre, monounsaturated fats, and lipid-soluble antioxidants, which have all been linked to improvements in maternal health, birth outcomes and breast milk quality.

The study is part of a bigger look and nutritional guidelines for pregnant women and the conclusion was that avocados are a unique nutrition source for pregnant and lactating women and should be included in future dietary recommendations for expecting and new mothers.

This is fab news if, like me, your idea of heaven is avocado smashed on wholegrain bread with a squeeze of lemon juice and dash of cayenne pepper or slices of tomato (I’m salivating just writing that!). But it’s also not so fab news if, like me, you live in a country where avocados are currently so expensive, that eating them throughout nine months of pregnancy would cost you the equivalent of a high end baby stroller.

So what are the alternatives if you can’t source fresh avocado?

Look for frozen. I haven’t seen them in NZ, but in other countries you can find them in the freezer section (you can also freeze avocado yourself by pureeing it and spritzing with lemon juice first if you have some to stockpile)

Try an avocado oil – it’s extracted from the avocado fruit, as opposed to many other oils that are made from the seed so is packed with all those good nutrients

Think nuts. Around 23 almonds has nine grams of monosaturated fat – which is just shy of the 10 grams found in an avocado. You could also look at various nut butters, particularly to replace the avocado in the smoothie recipe below.

If you’re wanting a guacamole style dip, this site here suggests mashing up a cup of peas, a tablespoon of olive oil along with garlic, onion, pepper, salt etc. The olive oil has nearly as much monosaturated fat as the avocado, plus the peas have the same amount of fibre and four times the protein.

Avocado is high in vitamin E, which you can also get from almonds, apricots and spinach

If avocados access is not a problem for you, here are some very easy recipes to help you get them into your diet:

For heaps more avocado-eating ideas check out the NZ Avocado Growers Association site – I ended up saving lots and lots of tasty sounding recipes. Now I just have to wait for avocados to come back into season to try them!

Gemma Finlay has spent her working life in journalism, marketing and publicity. Since having her daughter, Nina, in 2014 she’s become obsessed with all things pregnancy and baby related. Dealing with the physical side of pregnancy made her hyper-aware of the importance of getting good advice about looking after yourself both pre and post birth. She’s passionate about sharing quality information with other mums. Follow Gemma on Twitter

Gemma Finlay has spent her working life in journalism, marketing and publicity. A mum of two daughters, she found dealing with the physical side of pregnancy made her hyper-aware of the importance of getting good advice about looking after yourself in the pre and post-natal periods. She’s passionate about sharing quality information with other mums.